Is it appropriate for a City employee to include a religious quotation in the electronic signature of all emails sent from his City email account?
I have been corresponding by email with a command officer at the Woodstock Police Department regarding a City issue. His replies include what is called an electronic signature that contains a quotation from the Bible.
Electronic signatures are used most commonly for a sender’s name, address, phone and other contact information, such as website and perhaps promotional information about his business. A person can include anything he wishes in his signature, when it is his personal email account.
If a sender were an employee of a commercial enterprise, he would probably be cautious about including any personal (non-business) information to which his employer or customers might object.
But what about the sender who is a government employee, whether City, County, Township, State or Federal? What is appropriate data to include in the e-signature?
Such information should be business-related only. It replaces information that would normally be found in a letterhead, had the communication been prepared on business stationery.
Should religious information be written in the e-signature? Because the recipients of a government sender’s messages might be of different faiths or no faith at all, religious messages do not belong in the e-signature. Even if the recipient is of the same faith or general denomination (or different or none), he might feel that, on general business grounds, a religious e-signature does not belong in a message sent on government business.
I wonder what Woodstock City government will have to say on this issue.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
22 comments:
Oh,they will probably make that person take it away. And then you can sit back and wonder what change for the better you have made. What feelings you have kept from being hurt. What a bette place you have made the city by making a city employee remove a statement of their faith. We can't allow that,know can we. After all, if we keep people from express their faith we make the world a better place to live, don't we?
I know who your talking about. He is a kind thoughtful man who has dedicated his life to serving the city. Leave him alone.
An expression of faith by email is constitutionally-protected. Few would argue that one should not express his faith, if he wishes to do so. It is doing so in an official City email response that I believe the City will not approve.
In many email systems electronic-signature messages are not shown to Sender as he writes his outgoing message. They are "hidden" from view after being set up. They go out with every message thereafter, unless manually removed.
An e-signature is often forgotten after it has been in use for some period of time, yet it continues to be sent as a part of every message.
Being a "kind thoughtful man" doesn't have a thing to do with this issue. Neither his particular position nor the city department of his employment is important to this issue. If he were employed by a church or other faith-based organization and used such an e-signature, it wouldn't be an issue.
http://www.aclj.org/news/Read.aspx?ID=336
Make sure you read the government employee section.
OK, so I read "Chapter Three - Government Employees", and I did not find anything that indicated that an e-signature containing a quote from the Bible would be a protected expression in an official email on a local government's email system. That website presents common-sense approaches, although some might think they have found a heavy bat to use in the employment game.
Any idea how many other City employees use similar e-signatures? 50? 25? 10? 5? Any others?
I was able to find the section pretty quick. It says that government employees can use biblical phrases in and on emails, letterheads, as a picture on a desk, etc. Once again Gus, you only see what you want to see. Take the blinders off man!
Here's a nice biblical phrase: "Turn your hearts and minds unto the service of the Master of the All, and grow strong in the Ways of Darkness, consigning yourself over to the work of our Lord Lucifer, for it is then that you shall know greatness." Straight out of Satan's Bible on the web. Can City employees quote from this Bible? How about the Koran? "As to the infidels, alike is it to them whether thou warn them or warn them not -- they will not believe: Their hearts and their ears hath God sealed up; and over their eyes is a covering. For them, a severe chastisement!" How about the Atheist's Bible? "The idea of God is the sole wrong for which I cannot forgive mankind. -Marquis de Sade" All of these quotes are biblical passages. They are quotes from the Bible. It depends on which Bible you choose. So any of these should be acceptable to include in a government employee's e-signature. Right???
To 8:55AM Anon:
I re-read Chapter Three and do not find any reference to e-mail or letterheads. In what paragraph of Chapter Three (or anywhere in the link you provided) did you find it?
Even if it's there, that will not be the rule in any given City government; it will be the opinion of the American Center for Law & Justice, which appears to be a Christian Rights or other faith-based organization.
In forty years in business I have never seen a biblical quote in business correspondence, unless it came from a religious organization.
I expect a reply from the City of Woodstock next week.
How bout the document that is used by the Whitehouse to guide government employees. Would or they accept that. No I suppose you would not. I am done with you. Search it yourselve.
Hey Frank maybe you should look into fighting a more worthy fight. For example, the currency you spend has “IN GOD WE TRUST” on it! Maybe you should consider fighting with the Federal Government to get that removed since you find phrases like this so offensive. Frank maybe it’s time you go purchase a series of books called “Don't Sweat the Small Stuff--and it's all small stuff (Don't Sweat the Small Stuff Series) (Paperback)”
by Richard Carlson (Author) "Often we allow ourselves to get all worked up about things that, upon closer examination, aren't really that big a deal..."
Any document, used by the White House for speech of U.S. government employees, applies right there, and only there. It will not apply to State, County, City or Township governments.
One of the problems, when no one sweats the "small stuff", - - well, wait; not just "one" of the problems... There would be too many problems to list.
I won't bother to list what some would call "absurd" examples of not sweating the small stuff; however, some of these have led to catastrophies and many deaths. Look, for example, at just this one: WMDs. Too few sweated the "small stuff"; if they had, we wouldn't have invaded Iraq; 3,800 soldiers would be alive; 30,000 soldiers would not have suffered TBI, loss of limbs and other injuries that will require life-long treatment.
When no one sweats the small stuff, then we end up with horrendous taxes, corruption, governments that say one thing and do something else. No one watches; no one speaks out. And, pretty soon, it's too late and you cannot speak out.
Who said, "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it"? Brainyquote.com attributes this to Voltaire.
I heard this one again last week - "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." It was attributed to Thomas Jefferson, but the words were spoken by John Philpot Curran (1750-1817), Irish politician and judge. Maybe this quote should be on our money.
So let me get this straight. YOU believe the rules for the Fed Government are different for Local Government.
Folks, this guy is nuts. Why does anyone read his rants for anything other than laughs.
It seems to me that you think rules and laws are the same thing. A rule, policy manual, procedure, or workplace requirement is absolutely different from a law, whether federal or state.
A national law applies within a state's boundaries. Or at least it should. When states, cities and counties ignore federal laws, then citizens must call their local governments on it. But this posting is not the place for that issue.
Gus, what does the verse say???
Go ahead Frank, tell him. Tell him what terrible thing the city employee had on the email. Thank the Lord you stopped that sort of thing. OH my.
Gus, seriously, I'm curious what that verse said. Could you share? Thanks.
What's wrong Frank, Are you afraid to look stupid and petty. Post the verse so we can all see how terrible it was.
The verse included in the electronic signature on a City email account was "Joshua 24:15. "But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
Any religious verse that an individual wished to use on his personal email account would not even get a second glance from me. It is fully protected under the Constitution as free speech. My issue was and is that it is not appropriate in the e-signature on a City email account.
The City apparently agrees, because that e-signature no longer is sent in official City emails.
All this online sniping has caused me to wonder how the City's Email Policy reads.
It's easy for Commenters to hide behind posting as Anonymous. If they had any guts, they'd set up accounts with their names and take responsibility for their comments.
Good on you,Gus. You've got the guts but not the brains.
As usual Frank you put you nose where it did not belong. Personal expression of faith are not only allowed under current law, but they are protected. It seems that action is being taken just to shut you up, even when your wrong. That make you dangerous. A liabiltiy to us all.
Gus, this is really tough. I am likeminded with this city employee and applaud his courage in sharing his faith, but I highly doubt I would want to get correspondence from a city official that spoke of "Mother Earth," or "Allah," or "Shiva," or "Apostle Al Gore," or "Buddah."
Or maybe it would open a door and provide a witnessing opportunity? Hmmm....
Gus, why not write Pastor Steve over at http://www.stevekmccoy.com/reformissionary/
and ask for his take on this. He's counter-cultural and he lives here in Woodstock and his reply would provide interesting fodder to this debate. (If you do, please post as a new article so we don't miss it!)
I can assure the commenter of Nov. 27, 9:49AM, that the City of Woodstock would never take any action against an employee "just to shut (me) up." If the City took any action, and it has not informed me of any action or replied further to me about this (it's a "personnel" issue, right?), it did so because it was the proper action to take. In fact, I don't know whether the e-signature is just being removed from emails to me or it is has been removed permanently.
I agree with the commenter that this is a tough one, but sometimes the High Road is the tough, and right, one. That commenter's view is correct; no religious views in City email.
Post a Comment